IM Heungsoon
KI Seulki
KOBAYASHI Kohei
LEE Hyein
LEE Sungmi
LEE Wonho
MINAMIKAWA Shimon
MOMOSE Aya
TEZUKA AikoTOMII Motohiro
YANG Junguk
YOKOMIZO Shizuka

Artist File 2015

Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea
KI Seulki | Unfamiliar Corner 02 | 2012 | Archival pigment print

Wed., July 29 ̶ Mon., Oct. 12, 2015
Closed Tue. (except Tue., Sept. 22)
Opening hours: 10:00 -18:00 *10:00 -20:00 on Fridays (Last admission 30 minutes before closing)

The National Art Center, Tokyo receives operational
support from Jun Ashida Co., Ltd. And Robert Walters Japan.

The National Art Center, Tokyo (Kokuritsu-Shin-Bijutsukan),
Special Exhibition Gallery 2E
Organized by: The National Art Center, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
Co-organized by: The Japan Foundation, The Korea Foundation
With the support of: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan,Korean Cultural Center Korean Embassy in Japan

Artist File 2015
Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

Exhibition Outline

Admission (tax. incl.)

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Date: Wed., July 29 ̶ Mon., Oct. 12, 2015̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶
General: ¥1,000 (Adults) / ¥500 (College Students)̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶
Advance: ¥800 (Adults) / ¥300 (College Students)̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶
Group: ¥800 (Adults) / ¥300 (College Students)̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶

Closed Tue. (except Tue., Sept. 22)

Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo (Kokuritsu-Shin-Bijutsukan),
Special Exhibition Gallery 2E
Opening hours: 10:00-18:00 *10:00-20:00 on Fridays*Visitors who are under 18, including high school students and disabled people with

(Last admission 30 minutes before closing)

ID booklets (along with one attendant) will be admitted free.

Organized by: The National Art Center, Tokyo,
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea*Group tickets will only be available at the venue (discounts only applicable to groupsof 20 or more).
* Tickets both Advance and General are available through Lawson Ticket (L-code:

Co-organized by: The Japan Foundation, The Korea Foundation

39067), eplus, e-tix and tixee. Service charges may apply. (These services are only
available in Japanese.)With the support of: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan,
Korean Cultural Center Korean Embassy in Japan*Advance tickets can be purchased through the above services and at the National Art
Center, Tokyo from May 27 (Wed.), 2015 to July 28 (Tue.), 2015 (only until July 27 (Mon.)at the National Art Center, Tokyo.)

The National Art Center, Tokyo receives operational support
from Jun Ashida Co., Ltd. and Robert Walters Japan.

*Visitors who present a ticket or ticket stub from another exhibition currently underway
at the National Art Center, Tokyo, the Suntory Museum or the Mori Art Museum (thethree facilities that make up the Roppongi Art Triangle) will be eligible for the group

The National Art Center, Tokyo
7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-8558, Japan
Tel: +81 (0) 3-5405-8686 (Hello Dial)
URL: http://www.nact.jp/

discount.
*Visitors 65 and over (I.D. with proof of age required) who present a ticket stub fromartist associations’ exhibition held at the National Art Center, Tokyo during “Artist File2015” will be admitted to the exhibition at the college student group rate.

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Related Events
For the latest information and the details, please visit the
National Art Center, Tokyo website.

Exhibition held during the same period:
Manga*Anime*Games from Japan
Wed., June 24-Mon., Aug. 31, 2015

For press-related inquiries, please contact:
Public Relations Division, The National Art Center, Tokyo
Tel: +81 (0)3-6812-9925
Fax: +81 (0)3-3405-2531
E-mail: pr@nact.jp

AccessNogizaka Station, Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, Exit 6 (direct access)Roppongi Station, Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, Exit 4a (about 5-minute walk)Roppongi Station, Toei Oedo Subway Line, Exit 7 (about 4-minute walk)01

Artist File 2015
Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

Exhibition Overview
This exhibition, featuring Japanese and Korean artists, isscheduled to begin at NACT before traveling to MMCA, Gwacheon.
The subtitle of the exhibition, Next Doors: Contemporary Art inJapan and Korea, is intended to suggest the continuing use of thesolo show format, one of Artist File’s trademarks as well as thegeographical proximity between Japan and Korea, and the looseknit way in which the aesthetics and styles of the two countries’

Artist File, organized by the National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT)
since 2008, is a group exhibition consisting of a collection ofsolo shows by contemporary artists who are producing someof the freshest and most substantial work today. This year, tocommemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations
between Japan and Korea, we present Artist File 2015 Next
Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea in cooperation with
the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea(MMCA), one of Asia’s foremost museums.

artists are linked.

Exhibition Highlights
What is Artist File?

activities in their respective countries. The artists make use of adiverse range of expressive forms including painting, sculpture,
photography, video, and installation. Moreover, the exhibition
has no age restrictions, and as suggested by its neutral title,
Artist File encompasses everyone from artists who are alreadyhighly regarded internationally to those who are in the process of
distinguishing themselves.

Art File is an ongoing series of exhibitions showcasing a group ofcontemporary artists which has been organized by the National
Art Center, Tokyo five times in the past: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011,
and 2013. By making effective use of the facility’s expansive ﬂoor
space, the exhibition introduces work by a number of dynamic
artists as a collection of solo exhibitions. This exhibition, the ﬁrst
time since the exhibition has been held in two years, consistsof Japanese and Korean artists who were selected on the basisof rigorous surveys conducted by curators from the National
Art Center, Tokyo and the National Museum of Modern andContemporary Art, Korea.

Next Doors
Artist File 2015 bears the subtitle Next Doors: Contemporary Art inJapan and Korea. This is intended to suggest the geographicalproximity between Japan and Korea as well as the way in which
the aesthetics of the artists (who were not previously aware ofeach other’s existence) resonate with each other. In fact, thisexhibition marks the first time that many of the artists will beshowing their work in each other’s country.

The National Museum of Modern andContemporary Art, Korea
In addition to branches in Gwacheon and Deoksugung, theNational Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
opened a new branch in central Seoul in 2013. This facility
promises to make the museum an even more importantpresence in Korea and in Asia as a whole. After ﬁrst being shownat the National Art Center, Tokyo, the Artist File 2015 exhibitionis scheduled to travel to the National Museum of Modern andContemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon.

Exhibition Catalogue and Artist Archive
In addition to showing art works, one of the most important
objectives of Artist File is to assemble information about
the artists that can literally be filed. Containing a detailed
career history and bibliography, the exhibition catalogue will
be published in a trilingual edition (Japanese, Korean, andEnglish). And even after the exhibition ﬁnishes, efforts to collectinformation about the artists will continue and added to anarchive of 40 artists who participated in past exhibitions in theseries.

Japanese and Korean Artists
The exhibition consists of a total of 12 contemporary artists, sixfrom Japan and six from Korea, who are engaged in outstanding02

Artist File 2015
Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

Participating Artists

IM Heungsoon (b. 1969 –)Born and currently residing in Seoul
Im Heungsoon uses video to expresses aspects of Korean history fromthe perspective of individual lives. In the ‘Public Art Project’, He formed a
project team with local residents, and dealt with social problems such as
migration and urban life. Another work, Sung Si (2011), set on Jeju (which
despite having once been the scene of many tragic events in contemporary
Korean history, has now been transformed into a tourist destination),
consists of interviews with survivors relating their painful memories andshots of the island’s beautiful scenery. In Jeju Prayer and Apartments (20072010), Im branched out into the documentary genre and tried to engage
with the general public in a more active manner. Im is currently working
on Reincarnation (2015), a more expansive work concerned with Asia, inwhich he searches for links between individual lives in the modern and

IM Heungsoon | Nameless Scenery 2 | 2011 | Inkjet print

contemporary history of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

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KI Seulki (b. 1983–)
Born and currently residing in Seoul
Ki Seulki is fascinated with identifying internal events such as emotions
and perceptions, and other phenomena that are not visible to the eye.
Using a diverse range of media, including photography, video, andinstallation, Ki visualizes amorphous entities like water, color, and light,
and subtle feelings that are aroused in particular spaces. Imbued with asense of tension, her works are rooted in contrasts such as planes andsolids, the parts and the whole, and intimacy and alienation, and radiate aunique charm. In addition, the artist’s own fragmented body parts and thesudden intervention of traces of action trigger movements in the space,
KI Seulki | Unfamiliar Corner 02 | 2012 | Archival pigment print

arousing the viewer’s imagination.

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KOBAYASHI Kohei (b. 1974–)
Born in Tokyo, currently residing in Saitama
Kobayashi Kohei is best known for his video pieces. In his recent works, theartist himself makes frequent appearances along with readymade articles
purchased at a home improvement center. Then, by subtly changing theplaces where these articles should be, Kobayashi engages in what initiallyseem to be unrelated actions. In this way, he urges us to experience
deeper realities, which we tend to overlook in everyday life, such as thecontext that surrounds an object and the intentions that lie behind it.
Kobayashi also makes videos using a script based on a text that he asks
someone else to write, which he then develops in a dialogue with a groupof performers, and stages performances that are created in collaboration
with dancers and choreographers.

KOBAYASHI Kohei | L- shapes and Earthworms | 2014 | Mixed media | Installation view,“1974 part 1 – 6 Artists Born in 1974”, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma,̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶

2014 | Photo: Masakazu Onishi | Courtesy: YAMAMOTO GENDAI03

Artist File 2015
Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

LEE Hyein (b. 1981–)
Born and currently residing in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do
Lee Hyein makes her work while living in various different places. She
draws on the experiences and emotions from each place and expresses
them in three dimensions using diverse media, including paintings basedon outdoor sketches, drawings, video, and installations. Painting haslong remained at the heart of Lee’s work as a means of observing anddocumenting the world. Her sensitivity to real life and natural spaces
is manifested through unusual methods such as painting in a corner ofa dark room, or depicting an outdoor landscape from inside a tent. And
by installing her works on small walls or in nooks and crannies arounda space, Lee invites us into a world of sketches that reverberates deeply
within us despite the fact that we are unfamiliar with the pieces.

LEE Hyein | Right: The Sculpture Made in Thinking of a Tree | 2012 |Recycled paper, staple, acrylic, wood̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶

Left: I Don’t Have a Dog. I Don’t Have a Gun. I’ll Have Your 30min. Sorry! | 2012 |Felt, wood, wheel, carbon frame | Photo: Jun Jiwon

LEE Sungmi (b. 1977–)
Born and currently residing in Seoul
Using shards of glass from cars that were smashed up in accidents andstrewn over the road, and transparent mutable objects, Lee Sungmi
turns our ordinary sense of anxiety into profound phenomena. Throughthe artist’s manual labor, carefully repeated like some kind of ascetic
practice, these materials, containing traces of misfortune, are reborn
as beautiful limpid objects. Lee seems to handle his materials in an
extremely mechanical and artiﬁcial way, but the repetitive acts used in the
production process are actually a means of exposing the materials’ uniquequalities. By making these miserable materials into art, Lee touches us
somewhere deep inside and realizes a unique visual expression.

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LEE Sungmi | Glass Blanket | 2014 | Collected broken automobile glass, mixed media

LEE Wonho (b. 1972–)
Born in Suncheon, Jeonnam,; currently resides in Seoul
Using ordinary notions about objects and spaces as a foundation, Lee
Wonho dismantles the concepts we associate with these things, andcreates work that presents them in a completely different dimension. In
one work, Lee removed all of the white lines from a playground and created
a “white ﬁeld” made up solely of white lines. In another, he sent letters to
non-existent recipients, and documented the process in which the item
was returned (“addressee unknown”) using a recording device containedin the envelope. Through these approaches, which subvert social rules andconventional wisdom, Lee presents us with a new way of looking at thethings around us and a different perspective on superﬁcial elements inthe world.

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LEE Wonho | Stor yⅠ | 2013 | Beggars’ money and tools acquired throughbargaining with the beggars

04Artist File 2015
Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

MINAMIKAWA Shimon (b. 1972–)
Born in Tokyo; currently residing in New York and Berlin
Since the beginning of his career, Minamikawa Shimon has made workthat deviates from conventional painting and other formats. From portraits
made with pale tones to abstract paintings using brilliant ﬂuorescentcolors, and a series called Sign Boards, in which he applies paint directly
to an easel, Minamikawa’s works assume a variety of forms. And by
showing a number of works with different qualities alongside each other,
the artist rearranges the meaning of each individual piece, and turns thespace into a work of art. In recent years, Minamikawa has collaborated
with performance artists and others, and produced works that traverse
artistic genres.

MINAMIKAWA Shimon | Play | 2014 | Acrylic on canvas, paper collage | Courtesy: MISAKO & ROSEN

̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶MOMOSE Aya (b. 1988–)
Born and currently residing in Tokyo
Against a backdrop of contemporary society, ﬂooded as it is with digital
video, Momose Aya asks what these images really are and urges us toreconsider the act and experience of watching them. In her works, which
begin by documenting a performance on video, the body and voice areimportant elements. In her works, which unfold in wholly unexpected
ways, people’s mouths are peculiarly out of sync with their voices, andtheir utterances are divorced from the original context. This disrupts theirrelationships and communication with others, exposing the violence andimmorality contained in the act of shooting. Not only do Momose’s subtle
manipulations surprise and disturb us, they reveal the ominous power ofthe video medium.

MOMOSE Aya | Fixed Point Observation (With My Father) | 2013–14 | Video and text̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶TEZUKA Aiko (b. 1976 –)Born in Tokyo; currently residing in Berlin
Known for works in which she unravels preexisting textiles, Tezuka’s art
frequently gives rise to a sublime sensation. Her approach dates back touniversity when she embroidered a piece of canvas that also served as the
support medium for painting. This marked the beginning of a shift from oil
painting to sculptural objects made with textiles. The original structure ofa textile can be seen in both two-and three-dimensional terms, and thisversatility makes it possible to freely alter its form. While continuing to
expand the potential of textiles as a material, in recent years Tezuka has
attempted to add a new layer of images by incorporating symbolic marks.

̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶TEZUKA Aiko | Lessons for Restoration (mirror) | 2013 | Untied fabric (souvenir from Florence) |Photo: Ute Klein | Courtesy: Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin-Singapore

05Artist File 2015
Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

TOMII Motohiro (b. 1973–)
Born in Niigata; currently residing in Tokyo and New YorkTomii Motohiro, who majored in sculpture in graduate school, began bymaking small plaster works based on familiar motifs like stairs, houses,
books, and people, and sculptural works in which he transformed theshape of small people with putty. In these works, he reexamined therelationship between place, pedestal, and sculpture, and developed astrong interest in the environments that surround art works. He frequently
makes use of readymade objects like thumbtacks, Super Balls, pencils,ﬁles, and balloons. What is essential about these everyday items is nottheir function but their form. In recent years, Tomii has also continued to
produce sculptures using written instructions and to extract sculpturesfrom ordinary landscapes using photography.

TOMII Motohiro | board band board #2 | 2014 | Polypropylene band, acrylic sheet |Photo: Masaru Yanagiba | Courtesy: Yumiko Chiba Associates̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶YANG Junguk (b. 1982–)
Born and currently residing in Seoul
Using observation and experience, Yang Junguk expresses certain avariety of fragmented thoughts using texts and moving sculptures. Yang
starts by ﬁnding trivial emotions and intuitions in daily life, and thendevelops them into short poems, texts or short stories. Next, he creates
moving structures that provide a sympathetic response to the texts. His
sculptures, made with a wholly handicraft-like approach, are presented
according to a simple organic working principle, and stimulate a poetic
sensibility through light and shadow, sound, and repetitive mechanisms.

̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶̶YANG Junguk | Fatigue is always with the dream | 2013 | Wood, motor, thread |Photo: Kim Namhee

YOKOMIZO Shizuka (b. 1966–)
Born in Tokyo; currently residing in London
By making use of photography’s special properties, Yokomizo Shizuka
questions various relationships between the medium and human beings
as subject matter. There is a stark contrast between the intimacy of
Sleeping, depicting a sleeping friend in a dark bedroom, and the brusqueencounter in Stranger, showing someone writing a letter to a seemingly
unknown person without exchanging a word. Yokomizo selects her medium
based on the theme of the work. This is apparent from Forever (and again),a video work focusing on the performance of an aged pianist, which deals
with the theme of “time.” Recently, all, a series of photographs depicting
a pregnant woman’s body in which fantastic images intersect with reality,
gave Yokomizo the opportunity to think more deeply about the culturalanthropological issue of what images really are.

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YOKOMIZO Shizuka | all (Cc) | 2008 | C-type print | Courtesy: WAKO WORKS OF ART

06

Artist File 2015
Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

List of Image Data for Press Use 01
We are pleased to offer a number of different images of the works on display to help promote the exhibition. If you would like to receive one (or more),please ﬁll out the attached form and return it to us by fax (e-mail requests will also be honored).
*Please refrain from using the images included in the press release without prior permission.
*Images for press use may differ from the works on display.

01 IM Heungsoon | Nameless Scenery 2 | 2011 | Inkjet print

02 KI Seulki | Unfamiliar Corner 02 | 2012 | Archival pigment print

03 KOBAYASHI Kohei | L- shapes and Earthworms | 2014 | Mixed media

Installation view, “1974 part 1– 6 Artists Born in 1974”, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, 2014
Photo: Masakazu Onishi | Courtesy : YAMAMOTO GENDAI

04 LEE Hyein | Right: The Sculpture Made in Thinking of a Tree | 2012 | Recycled paper, staple, acrylic, wood

Left: I Don’t Have a Dog. I Don’t Have a Gun. I’ll Have Your 30min. Sorry! | 2012 | Felt, wood, wheel, carbon frame
Photo: Jun Jiwon

05 LEE Sungmi | Glass Blanket | 2014 | Collected broken automobile glass, mixed media

06 LEE Wonho | Stor y I | 2013 | Beggars’ money and tools acquired through bargaining with the beggars

07Artist File 2015
Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

List of Image Data for Press Use 02

07 MINAMIKAWA Shimon | Play | 2014 | Acrylic on canvas, paper collage| Courtesy: MISAKO & ROSEN

08 MOMOSE Aya | Fixed Point Observation (With My Father) | 2013–14 | Video and text

09 TEZUKA Aiko | Lessons for Restoration (mirror) | 2013 | Untied fabric (souvenir from Florence) |Photo: Ute Klein | Courtesy: Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin-Singapore

10 TOMII Motohiro | board band board #2 | 2014 | Polypropylene band, acrylic sheet |Photo: Masaru Yanagiba | Courtesy: Yumiko Chiba Associates

11 YANG Junguk | Fatigue is always with the dream | 2013 | Wood, motor, thread |Photo: Kim Namhee

12 YOKOMIZO Shizuka | all (Cc) | 2008 | C-type print | Courtesy: WAKO WORKS OF ART

08

Artist File 2015

Application Form for Image Data

Next Doors: Contemporary Art in Japan and Korea

and Ticket Giveaway for Press Use

Public Relations Division, The National Art Center, Tokyo
FAX | 03 3405 2531 E - mail | pr@nact.jp

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When making use of photos and images of the art works,
we kindly ask that you observe the following guidelines:
1. Photos and images of the art works are intended only for the promotion of the exhibition. Please do not use them after the exhibition has ended.
2. When using a photos or images, please include the entire credit (either in English or Japanese) as provided. (Please refer to list of image data.)
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If you don’t submit your manuscript before it is published, the National Art Center, Tokyo does not take any responsibility for the article.
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For inquiries or more information, please contact:
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Tel | +81 (0)3-6812-9925 Fax | +81 (0)3-3405-2531 E - mail | pr@nact.jp